Happy Birthday to Darcy!

Ok, so I'm a few days late, but Darcy had her Happy Birthday last Thursday and is now two years old. She's a little unclear on the age concept, but she definitely knows all about birthday parties now. Her requirements were HB hats, HB balloons, HB cake, HB candles, HB song. Presents weren't part of her birthday vocabulary, but, of course, they are now.

One of the highlights, in Darcy's words, was "all those cousins". Although Michael was unfortunately absent from the party because he was still in Portland, Darcy's Western cousins (from left to right) Henry (aka Hank), Alfred, Celaya, and Harry were all there. Granny Mimi (Betty) hosted, with a menu of pizza and birthday cake. Darcy was very impressed when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her and again when Grandma and Grandad (Kathy and Dave) called and sang it again over speaker phone.

Alfred helped open all the presents because Darcy was busy playing with a helicopter. She has since been enjoying the gifts. Cima House is suddenly a little more hazardous for walking.

Thanks to all who attended and sent birthday greetings from afar! Her first birthday was the day the movers came to pack up our house in King Salmon, so this was her first and only real birthday celebration and she really enjoyed the process.

I'll get some pictures of our trip to Vancouver, WA/Portland uploaded soon. We had a great trip in a beautiful part of the world, but we're very, very happy to be home now.

Our New President

Hail to the (new) chief! Here's President-Elect Obama three days before the election, at the rally we went to in Henderson, NV. Yay, Nevada, for going blue this election! Darcy not only knows Barack Obama when she sees him, she even recognizes his logo, based on her reaction to a photo of the Obama cupcakes a friend of mine made for election night. She's expressed a desire to see our new President at Cima house, instead of outside. We'll extend an open invitation.

This guy was being heavily photographed while everyone waited for Obama's arrival at the event. In case it's not quite evident, the shirt reads, "Meet the Fuckers" (a play on the movie title, "Meet the Fockers", for non-pop-culture watchers).

Go Obama!

Ok, so I think Darcy is starting to stir, so I'll make this quick. We got emails from the Obama campaign on Thursday saying that he was going to be in Henderson on Saturday morning. Even though Michael has not spent a whole day at home in almost a month, we decided to go. We got to the site early enough (6:40 am!) to be able to avoid shuttles. It was an amazing crowd and Obama was still energetic and enthusiastic, even after all these months on the road. Darcy got photographed by a few strangers who thought she looked so cute in her "Kids for Obama" t-shirt.

Darcy was a little freaked out by being in the middle of the crowd, so I took her to the opposite end of the football field once things really got going. I still had a good view of Obama and could hear everything; Darcy got to run around with other crowd-shy toddlers. Michael stayed closer to the stage and got some good pictures of Obama speaking, but I haven't run those through Photoshop yet to make them easily uploadable.

Go vote!

Darcy At The Beach

Darcy has been to beaches before, but not since she's been independently mobile. We took her to Zuma Beach in Malibu last time we hit Simi and she had a ball. She chased waves, she ran after shorebirds, she watched kites fly, she saw a Coast Guard helicopter, she threw sand. She got completely soaked, covered in sand from head to toe, and completely tuckered out. Our late October beach venture was a total success.

You may have noticed that I have not gone back and finished the vacation series. I decided to move on.

Darcy Loves Animals

I know that you will all be astounded to learn that Darcy has a fondness for the critters. I mean, given how little I care about our furred, feathered, scaled, and finned friends. She talks about them. She pretends to be them. She knows what they say. And she likes to be with them.


We recently played host to Tule for a couple days, much to Darcy's delight. When I first told her that our friend would be bringing her dog, she lit up and said, "Dog LICK Darcy!" And, yes, Tule made good on that prediction and licked Darcy, bringing on many squeals of delight.


Darcy also likes to ride animals. During our recent trip to Simi, we went to the farmers' market and found pony rides. Darcy showed interest, so we waited for two other sets of little girls to ride the ponies and then Darcy got strapped into the very secure saddle. After a few rounds, the 20ish guy leading her pony came over to the fences and said, with a big grin, "She keeps saying, "Say neigh! Say neigh!" She got a little extra riding for that, I think. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera with us because we didn't expect the ponies, so instead, here's a picture of her riding an elephant at a nearby mall's play area.


And riding is even fun if there's no animal underneath you; here's Darcy with (Mimi) Betty and (Aunt) Jo on the saddle at Kelso Depot a few weeks ago.

Vacation, Part III

Ok, so Ev recently commented about my failure to finish the Vacation series, so here's the next installment. This will finish up the camping portion of the trip and I'll do one more with some pictures from our time in Simi Valley.

We got a new backpack carrier for the trip, as the used one we had been given had some issues. Here is Michael with our small hiker on our way to Rainbow Falls. This hike went through mostly burnt areas, which wasn't so pleasant, but it did get Darcy back on the shuttle bus that provides transport around Devil's Postpile. She loved that bus!

Rainbow Falls was gorgeous and had quite a crowd of admirers while we were there. We rested a bit in the shade and munched on freeze dried mango slices.

Darcy liked to look at the falls, but of course, she also said hi to everyone and danced around the observation area.


At one of the river access points in our campground, there was this beautiful stand of lupine. We saw a lot of lupine everywhere; it was so lush compared to our smaller versions from this spring. I took these pictures when I went down to the water after Darcy's bedtime to wash my pumice-dust-encrusted feet. The mosquitoes were awful, but with the moon rising above the sunset, I toughed it out to try to get a few get photos.


This was our last night of camping. Sometime early in the morning, Darcy got so cold that even being in our bed couldn't keep her warm enough to fall asleep. When there was the slightest hint of light, we decided we'd be better off just packing up camp and moving on. By 6:05, we were on the road and the car claimed it was 38 outside! No wonder she was a little chilly. We stopped at a bakery on our way out of town for egg and cheese croissants and coffee, and then drove to Simi Valley, arriving filthy and tired.

We're Living in The Wild, Wild West

So, there was a train robbery a few miles from our house on Saturday. We treated it as more or less a joke at first because, really, who expects train robberies in this day and age? It seemed less funny a few hours later when we had a phone message from one of the Park's law enforcement rangers saying that we should make sure our doors were locked because there were still some suspects unaccounted for. It seemed MUCH less funny the next day when a teenager involved in the robbery was found dead in the desert.

I have more photos coming soon, I promise. Photoshop was being mean to me earlier today or there would already be a picture of our rabbit-wrangling girl on her trusty steed.